Jeremy Zawodny's blog

May 12, 2003

Just Do It

My Dad used to joke that my grandmother suffered from a
debilitating mental condition: inertia. We all thought this
was funny and true. She had (and still has) a way of arguing for the
status quo rather than change. In fact, she's able to spend
impressive amounts of time and mental energy thinking about doing (or
not doing) whatever it is she's trying to avoid--or at least
delay.

Apparently it runs in the family.

After very careful consideration, I've come to the conclusion that
my biggest weakness (or one of them) is the ability to simply act.
To get off my ass and Just Do It, whatever "it" may
be. Instead of doing it, I'll think about doing it. Or I'll put it
on the list of other its to do when I actually have time to do them.
Or I'll think about all the reasons I shouldn't do it. Or... you get
the idea.

It's not a simple matter of procrastination. There's more to it
than that. Procrastination is a simple. You just keep not doing it.
But I make a mental "project" about not doing it.

It's not a fear of change. At least I don't think it is.

I think I'm just really good at over estimating the amount of
stress that something really will cause, time it will take, and so
on. Often times I'll spend far more time and energy thinking about
it--more than it takes to Just Do It.

Here's a simple example. I've been "almost done" with a chapter of
the book for quite a while
now. I needed to sit down and put the finishing touches on it so that
I can send it to some people for review. And so they can tell me how
far from being done I really am. I've been thinking about it off and
on for several days now--thinking about how much time it's going to
take, because this sort of thing always takes more time that it
should.

Well, it didn't. And then I realized that this has happened
before. Many times.

Perhaps there's a good way to overcome this problem. I'm not sure
what it is or how to go about figuring that out. But maybe by writing
about it I'll be just a bit more likely to think less and Just Do It
more often.

(And no, this has nothing to do with Nike. Nothing at all.)

The problem reminds me of a quote from one of my favorite
books:

Argue for your limitations and sure enough they're
yours.

I used to think I really understood that statement. But I'm only
now beginning to appreciate it.

Oh, bonus points to anyone who can name the book without the use of
a search engine.

What did you fly yesterday?

I flew
a Grob 103 for about 1.5 hours. Two solo flights and one with a
friend (Lance) in the back seat. Here are the pictures
I took of the Grob on the ground and some from the front seat while
flying near Monterey Bay and over Hollister, CA.